The Visitor (#3 - The Craig Modern Thriller Series) (29 page)

“My God!” John said it with the surprise that Craig still felt. He grinned at his friend and punched his arm cheerfully. “And a million women weep, ha ha. Good for you. When’s the wedding?”

Craig’s look of shock said ‘slow down’, and so did his next words. “We’re nowhere near that yet! Let’s just see how it goes.” But John was on a roll and they walked into the mortuary to his incongruous whistles of ‘Here comes the bride’.

Once there, the mood changed abruptly. This was a place where people who’d been loved or ignored slept in drawers. There wasn’t much to laugh about.

John pulled Evie’s trolley out gently and took a magnifying glass from his pocket, focusing it on the skin of her young throat. Craig gazed down at her sadly. What a bloody waste.

“What are we looking for, John?”

“The Pethidine and Insulin didn’t kill her, and there was no ingested poison in the stomach analysis. Something else caused her death, and I’ve finally found it. It was strangulation. It wasn’t obvious, or we’d have seen it on day one. The thing that confused me was the absence of external marks, or any internal damage to her hyoid bone and larynx. But then I realised. Of course! Simple occlusion of the Carotid arteries.”

Craig gawped at him, marvelling at the ‘of course’. He was sure that no one else would have come within a mile of the diagnosis.

“If the arteries are completely closed it produces loss of consciousness in less than fifteen seconds, followed by rapid death. And it doesn’t leave a mark. The pressure needed to do it is about eleven pounds - indicating someone very strong. To avoid a struggle it’s usually only used to kill children or women, or completely incapacitated men. Evie fitted the profile perfectly. Plus, she would have been almost comatose from the medication, so she wouldn’t have fought back. That fits with the lack of the defensive injuries normally seen in strangulation attacks.”

He gloved up to demonstrate, pointing at Evie’s throat.

“Let’s suppose that the killer used the palm of one hand to apply pressure across the front of her neck - here. That would avoid any of the external trauma that you’d expect to see from fingertips or nails. Also, the pressure is distributed evenly, so very often there are no internal neck
injuries either. But you can see that my hand doesn’t reach right across her neck - she was a sturdy young woman and she had a broad neck. So not only would the killer have had to be very strong, but they’d also need large and long hands. Hold your hand above her neck, Marc.”

Craig complied. His hand reached - he was two inches taller than John.

“New research shows that hand size links with height. Large or long hands generally go with a taller man. So we’re looking for a tall and very strong assailant here. She has some puncture haemorrhages in the eyes, which is a sign of strangulation. But they could also have been caused by vigorous resuscitation, and she definitely had that.”

“How certain are you on this, John?”

“This is our answer, I’m sure of it. And I think that the D.N.A. on her forehead belongs to her killer. When you find him we can match it. Our murderer’s a strong, tall man. Taller than me. And tell Annette that’s not just chivalry. Even if the D.N.A. wasn’t conclusive it would take an abnormally strong woman to kill this way.”

“This is great, John. Brian Murray and Geoffrey Kerr are both tall and had a close relationship with her, so we’ll chase their D.N.A. first. If they don’t match we’ll start wider sampling. I’ll call you later.”

He turned to leave but John’s body language said that he hadn’t finished. “Marc...this is a very unusual method of killing, so maybe that’s a clue as well. I would look for men with combat training, if I were you.”

Craig nodded. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Monday. 2.30pm.

Annette caught Liam on his mobile. He was at home in the back garden, about to take a sip from a long cold beer. He’d booked the afternoon off weeks before to take Danni and Rory to the baby clinic, and they weren’t long back.

It was a hot day, so he was playing at being ‘King of the Barbeque’ and Danni had her brother’s kids coming over at four-thirty. So, as much as he liked Annette, he really wasn’t pleased to hear from her. They’d worked so much over-time in the past week that everyone was getting frayed. The thought of a barbie and beers was the only thing cheering him up.

“Ayyye, Cutty. What can I do you for?” Annette heard the edge in his voice and knew that she was about to add to it.

“Murdock’s disappeared.”

Liam was focusing on the grill, absentmindedly turning a sausage, when what she’d said suddenly sank in. “What do you mean disappeared? He can’t have! Maybe he’s just pissed off on his boat somewhere?”

“Will you listen to me? He didn’t come into work this morning and the protection detail has been trying to find him all day. His secretary called his wife an hour ago, and she phoned us. It turns out they’d been looking for him too. He had a full private clinic booked this morning and he just didn’t turn up. They’d been leaving messages on his mobile for hours. It was only the fact that he’d no operations or deliveries scheduled that stopped them ringing the wife before now. The last time anyone saw him was on Maternity, last night about eight, when he delivered a private patient. He’d been in the M.P.E. most of the weekend so he stayed over at his place in Belfast.”

“That’ll be the place in Owenville, where Tommy was caught tailing him on Saturday. Has anyone checked there? The address is in the report.”

“Joe’s already checked. It’s empty. The C.S.I.s are over there now.”

Liam sobered up quickly. “Have you been in touch with the girlfriend? She was seen by the guys tailing Tommy on Saturday.”

“Nope. Any idea who she is?”

“It shouldn’t be hard to find out.”

“That depends how discrete they were, Liam. And I can hardly ask the wife, can I? She’s
absolutely frantic – seems Murdock’s the very devoted hubbie.”

“Aye, right.”

“Well, he does a good impression of one anyway. And she says it’s not like him to miss patients’ appointments...especially the private ones.”

Liam whistled and stabbed the sausage hard, leaving the fork vertical.

“Did she actually say that? About the private patients?”

“Yep...and not a bit ashamed of it either. She sounds as stuck up as him.”

“A match made in heaven.” He paused, thinking for a minute. “Any signs of a fight at the house?”

“Joe says there’s nothing to see. And Liam...”

“Aye?”

“Remember that Tommy’s out there free as a bird. He’s been loose since Saturday night, long before Murdock disappeared. He could have done anything to him.”

Liam signed deeply, rubbing his eyes with his now-free hand. “Or... Murdock could be our killer, Cutty, and he’s just staged his own disappearance.”

“That’s exactly what the chief said. You both have suspicious minds.”

“And you
still think too well of people - that’ll come from being a nurse. You need to be a bit more suspicious. ‘In God we trust, everyone else keep your hands where I can see them’”

She laughed despairingly. “That’s shocking.”

“Not half as shocking as me having to tell Danni I’m leaving. She’s going to kill me.” He paused, thinking for a moment. “OK, ask Joe to lift Tommy. You’d better phone the boss and see whether he wants to go to the house, or straight to interview him. And I’d better brace myself for Danni pouring this beer over me. I’ll see you at Owenville in thirty...”

By the time they arrived at Owenville Park, the C.S.I.s were working in the lounge of the house, so they all gathered in the patio garden. Craig had already decided on his order. House, then Tommy. He was looking exhausted. Everyone was.

“Right. What have we got on Murdock? He was last seen in Maternity at eight last night. He was well when he left there and no-one’s heard from him since. And there are no signs of a struggle here.” Craig peered at his watch. “That makes a maximum of nineteen hours missing.”

“Boss. If Murdock’s the killer, couldn’t he just have legged it?”

Craig nodded. “Already there, Liam.”

Annette stared at them both, frowning.

“You don’t agree, Annette?”

“It’s not so much that, sir. It’s more of a gut feeling. But, well, logically, why would Murdock have killed any of them? I’m not saying that he couldn’t have...but why
would he?”

“Well, I’m not sure killers always think logically Annette, but I know what you mean. I agree Murdock’s a long shot, but we need to keep the possibility in mind.” He updated them on John’s findings.

“Evie’s cause of death requires our killer to be a large strong man - which Murdock is. And the kiss on her forehead had male D.N.A., so, if nothing else we need to eliminate him now. Liam, give John a call and see if there’s any way that we can eliminate Murdock in his absence. Maybe we can use a source of D.N.A. that his wife could give us access to.”

“I can think of one, sir.”

“What?”

“He’s a surgeon, so he’ll have given blood for Hepatitis screening. We could be lucky there, if the lab stores the samples?”

“It’s a good thought Annette, but we’d need permission anyway. Talk to his wife.”

Joe Rice ambled out through the French doors. “Sir, Mr Murdock’s car has been found at the M.P.E. It’s not in his usual parking space, that’s why it wasn’t noticed before. He must’ve just parked it any-old-where last night. Apparently he was rushing because his patient went into early labour, so he must’ve just dumped it and run to the ward.”

“I asked you to close the Unit, Liam.”

“I did, but Murdock wouldn’t move his private patients up to Bangor. ‘Didn’t want to inconvenience them’. The other consultants did, but he was stubborn, so he was still seeing them at the M.P.E. But their rooms are up in the private patients’ wing, boss, that’s the opposite end of the building to Maternity. The only time they’d be in the Maternity Unit was when they were delivering. And Murdock and their families would be with them the whole time. How the other half live, eh?”

“Doesn’t he do Caesareans on everyone?”

“Not on his private patients, unless they request it. It’s only forced on the poor NHS plebs. Anyway boss, there was nothing we could do to make him go to Bangor - I checked it with the Chief Exec. The private wing runs on a contract but it’s not actually part of the Trust, so he couldn’t close it down if he tried. Murdock wouldn’t listen and it seemed safe enough for the patients. We kept a close eye, and they’ve all gone home now.”

“It was safe for the patients, but maybe not so safe for Murdock. OK, what’s done is done, there’s no point worrying about it now. If someone wanted to get him they’d have got him wherever he was. Annette, can you go to the M.P.E. with Martin and interview everyone who saw Murdock last night. Take some C.S.I.’s down and go over his car, then get it towed to the compound when they’ve finished. Do we have anything on the girlfriend yet?”

“There’s some stuff belonging to her in the house. But you’re not going to like it, sir...”

“How much worse can it get? Go on.”

“His girlfriend is a solicitor at Morris and Harden’s. Her name’s Ronni DeLacy. It seems they’ve been at it for at least two years.”

The woman who’d been with Murdock at High Street.

Liam laughed. “Pheww, well now, there’s all sorts of jokes in there. He’ll be getting a discount on his fees anyway...”

“Yes, thanks for that thought Liam. Tell us in the pub when this is all over. OK Joe, get uniform to pick her up, just to assist us with enquiries into his disappearance. She might know something. But remember, she must have some feelings for him, so sensitively please.”

“Aye well...there’s a bright side, boss.”

Craig squinted at Liam warily and then rose to the bait. “What’s that then?”

“At least she won’t refuse to talk because she’s waiting for her solicitor...”

***

Ten minutes later Liam and Annette left in patrol cars and Craig moved to the French doors, calling Joe over.

“Joe, we need a sympathetic W.P.C. to take a statement from Mrs Murdock, please. And make sure she doesn’t even hint at the possibility of a mistress. That’s the last thing she needs when her husband’s disappeared.”

“No problem, sir. It’s already happening.”

“Good man. We also need to sweep the obvious places for Murdock. Check out his work, homes, and sailing buddies. Is there anywhere special he escapes to when it all gets too much for him? Liam can help you on that. We’re looking at a full-scale manhunt if he doesn’t show in the next few hours, so let’s deal with the basics now. I’m going to High Street to have another word with Tommy. He could have grabbed Murdock yesterday after we let him go. I wouldn’t put anything past him. Gather everyone in the briefing room at four please Joe. And remember, some people are still in court on Warwick.”

Joe disappeared into an area of better reception and made the calls, while Craig dialled Terry Harrison, updating him quickly.

“Right Craig, keep me up to speed. I’ve arranged a press briefing tomorrow at twelve, and I’d like you there please. I just hope that we aren’t announcing another death by then.”